


Safe As Houses

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Series: Becoming A Family [3]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-09
Updated: 2010-10-09
Packaged: 2017-10-12 13:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The best place to wait out a scary thunderstorm is snuggled up tight in bed with <i>Maman,</i> Daddy and Papa.</p><p>For the inception_kink prompt: <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/inception_kink/9327.html?thread=17483887#t17483887">During a nasty thunderstorm, their young children jump into bed with them. To calm their nerves and get them back to sleep, Eames takes it upon himself to tell them a bedtime story.</a> Sort of in the same universe as <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/120065">Only You Can Choose Your Fate,</a> in that the kids are from that story. It's not necessary to have read that one first, though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe As Houses

Ariadne shifted around in bed, then replaced the pillow between her knees. It was probably time to get yet another pillow, this time for below the swell of her belly. She closed her eyes again, listening to the gentle breathing of Arthur and Eames beside her in the king size bed, and the rain outside.

Dammit. Now she had to get up and go to the bathroom again.

With a soft groan, Ariadne pushed herself up to a sitting position. She usually was nestled between her lovers, but with the pregnancy and frequent bathroom trips, she had to shift to the edge of the bed. Trying to crawl over Arthur or Eames every few hours would simply wake everyone up, and Arthur was cranky first thing in the morning. She padded over to the bathroom in her bare feet as the first cracks of thunder sounded. The rain sounded as though it was coming down hard and fast as she left the bathroom. She wondered if Julian would wake up; he hated thunderstorms like this. Since she was up anyway, she went down the hall to where Gwen's and Julian's rooms were. There was already a nursery set up. The kids were looking forward to having a sibling, and Ariadne was looking forward to finally giving birth. Six more weeks to go. Not that she was counting.

Julian was shivering beneath his covers, which were pulled up over his head. The nightlight obviously wasn't helping. He was five and put on a brave front, but he was still scared of the dark. Gwen teased him about it, of course. She was nine and Such A Grownup, though she obviously didn't remember the time she had been scared of bees. "Hey, Jules," Ariadne said softly, lowering herself carefully at the edge of his bed. She rubbed his back and peered at his frightened face. _"Je suis ici,"_ she told him, making him smile.

 _"Maman,"_ Gwen said with a yawn, rubbing at her eyes in the doorway to Julian's room. "Thunder woke me up."

"Then it's just Papa and Daddy asleep, since I think the little one just woke up, too," Ariadne told her with a smile. Julian looked interested and put his hand over Ariadne's belly, momentarily distracted from the nasty weather outside.

"Can we wake them up, too?" Gwen asked. "Then we can watch a movie and eat popcorn?"

"Absolutely not, young lady."

"Can we sleep with you?" Julian asked in a tremulous voice after another crash of thunder. "It's safer there."

With effort, Ariadne pushed herself up to her feet. It was probably going to be the only way for anyone to get back to sleep. "Come on, then."

"Maybe Papa will tell a story?" Julian asked, bringing one of his baby blankets with him.

Gwen for once didn't tease him about it. "With voices?" she pleaded.

Ariadne laughed. "You'll have to ask Papa."

Gwen threw herself onto the bed with a squeal of happiness, landing on Eames and instantly waking him. Arthur woke at his cry of surprise, and cracked an eye open. "Uh oh. What's this?"

"Jules got afraid of the thunder and lightning."

"Am not!" he called out, though he had one hand clenched in Ariadne's nightgown and the fingers of his other hand were in his mouth as if he was a toddler again.

"Come on up, Jules," Eames groaned, settling Gwen down on his other side, next to Arthur. "Plenty of room here to snuggle."

"Can you tell us a story?" Julian asked, eyes lighting up as Ariadne helped Eames pull him up into the bed. She eased in after him and helped adjust all the covers over everybody. All that was missing was a family dog lying across the foot of the bed.

"And use the voices!" Gwen squealed, right next to Arthur's ear. He winced, making Eames laugh.

"Oh, all right, you convinced me," Eames replied with a smile. He poked Arthur. "Don't tell me you're already falling asleep. I haven't even started yet."

"Someone has to be up in the morning to make sure the kids get on the bus."

"Spoilsport," Eames teased as Arthur made a face at him. "All right, all right. What story shall I tell, my loves?"

"The Big Bad Wolf!" Gwen chortled, bouncing up and down on the bed. Julian sighed and burrowed against Ariadne's side. "He's bigger and badder than all the rain outside! He can blow it all down!"

"Sleep is good," Arthur intoned, making Ariadne giggle and ruffle Julian's hair indulgently. "What? It is."

Eames began with the high pitched voice he normally used for the three little pigs. "Well, _I_ want to make one with sticks," he said is his playful falsetto.

 _"Wood,_ Eames," Arthur corrected, cracking an eye open.

"Well, if I want to say the pig's got wood, I'd've said the nasty thing and been done with it," Eames replied. Ariadne snickered and covered it by tickling Julian.

Arthur wasn't mollified in the slightest. "Stop corrupting our children and just tell the story."

Gwen laughed and planted a kiss on Arthur's cheek. "Daddy, let's listen to the story."

"Yeah, Daddy," Eames sing-songed. "Let me tell the story."

He continued with Arthur's corrected word, until he got to the third pig. "I want to use stones."

"It's _bricks,"_ Arthur said, pushing himself up on his elbow. "The pigs use straw, wood and bricks."

"I think the pig's got stones, he does," Eames snickered. Ariadne started laughing, and the confused looks on the children's faces only made her laugh harder, holding her stomach. "See? She agrees with me."

"Ari can barely breathe, mor-" Arthur censored himself before the word could come out completely. "Just tell the story."

Eames sniffed in a dramatic fashion and widened his arms to take everyone into his arms. "All right then. So third house is of boring old _brick_ and stands up just fine under pressure. The three little piglets are so proud of their homes, and can't wait to invite each other over for tea and crumpets and-"

"Dolls and playtime!" Gwen added, giggling.

"Basketball," Julian said, turning to look up at Eames. "Right, Papa? They'd play basketball."

Arthur sighed. "Eames, the story?"

With an exaggerated sigh, Eames rolled his eyes. "All right. On with the story. Because you see, our three little piglets, with their nice warm houses and visits back and forth attracted the attention of a wolf. Not just any wolf, but a big, bad wolf."

"The biggest and baddest and most horrible-est of all the wolves!" Gwen and Julian chorused along with Eames. Ariadne giggled at the deep tone Eames had taken, and the annoyed expression on Arthur's face. Deep down, she was convinced he actually liked these little family storytelling sessions.

"So our big, bad wolf, he goes up to the little straw house." Eames let his voice get all deep and gravelly. "Little pig, little pig, let me in." Then he pitched his voice much higher for the pig's reply: "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin." Julian giggled a little, sounding just like Ariadne, and turned to burrow against Eames' chest. Eames ruffled Julian's hair before resuming his deep wolf voice. "Well, then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll _blooooooooooow_ your house down!" For Arthur's sake, Eames couldn't resist shaking his shoulder and shouting "Ka-boom!"

"For god's sake, Eames!" Arthur bellowed, jerking back and away as he covered his ear. Gwen laughed and Julian sat up to grin at Arthur. "That's not funny!"

"Your face, Daddy, your face!" Julian cried, pointing and starting to bounce on the bed. "You looked _scared."_

"I was not scared," Arthur replied sulkily, settling back into bed. To assuage him somewhat, Gwen launched herself at him and kissed his cheeks. "Thank you, Gwen. _Someone's_ nice to me around here."

Eames snickered. "I'll show you nice after hours, darling."

"Eames!"

Ariadne couldn't help but giggle at them. "Come on, the kids want the story."

They all seemed to settle back down after that, and Eames stopped needling Arthur quite so much. The pig with the straw house ran to the pig with the wooden house, but the big, bad wolf was able to blow that one down as well. There was no explosive shout from Eames, and Julian began to yawn. His eyes slid shut as the two pigs ran to their brother with the brick house, and Gwen started yawning as well. The storm seemed to settle down a bit outside, and Ariadne quietly laughed when she heard Arthur's soft snores.

Eames softened his tone of voice at this point. "The big, bad wolf couldn't get to them in the brick house. He could blow and blow and blow like the wind, but nothing happened. The three little pigs were all safe as houses, safe and sound."

"Our house is safe," Gwen murmured with another yawn, burrowing between Eames and Arthur.

"That it is, lovely girl," Eames replied. "You sleep well, then."

 _"Bonne nuit,"_ she murmured sleepily.

"Time for us older folk to sleep as well," Eames said with a smile, turning to look at Ariadne.

She gave him a soft kiss on the lips, careful not to disturb Julian, who was sleeping soundly between them. _"Bonne nuit, mon cœur."_

 _"Mon ange,"_ he replied with a smile.

They all fell asleep together in their big family bed, the wind and rain outside forgotten.

The End


End file.
